Pitchfork obtained a secretly recorded tape of XXXTentacion talking with acquaintances around the time of his October 8, 2016 arrest. The tape, which was acquired from the Miami-Dade County state attorney’s office, is 27 minutes long but the excerpt provided by the music website is almost a minute-and-a-half. During the conversation, the artist spoke on his ex-girlfriend, saying:

“I put my source of happiness in another person, which was a mistake initially, right? But she fell through on every occasion until now. Until I started fucking her up bruh. I started fucking her up because she made one mistake. And from there, the whole cycle went down. Now she’s scared. That girl is scared for her life. Which I understand.”

Along with mentioning his ex-girlfriend, XXXTentacion referenced a stabbing incident that occurred in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

“I’m on [Miami] New Times for stabbing, how many people they put in the news? They said three, it was eight,” he said.

He also spoke on past events he had witnessed and how that affected his own violent behavior.

“You ever seen somebody get their tongue cut out? … You ever seen somebody get raped? … You ever seen somebody try to kill your mom in front of you? Every night you go to sleep and you remember what you seen and you remember how it felt and you remember that horrible feeling in your soul. Nobody can comfort you. It’s something I gotta deal with,” he said.

Prior to his death, XXXTentacion was awaiting trial for a 2016 domestic abuse case involving his ex-girlfriend. He was charged by the Miami-Dade County state attorney’s office with aggravated battery of a pregnant victim, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.